Whatever lies in your mind
by Human Nature
Summary: “The Registration Act is being discussed right now in the parliament. Jean Grey, a mutant partisan ...” The inevitable has happened... Mutants are going to be on the run, and some won’t survive if nothing is done. Rogue Gambit Wolverine all X-men
1. Chapter 1

Author: Human Nature (I put it up because I guess that some of you guys just copy the stuff and then read it without being connected. And I'd just like you to be able to find track of me again if you like what I write.)  
  
This is first chapter. Confusing, I know. It's done on purpose, (well, nearly).  
  
Anyway: Hello all of you!!!!! I let go of my last fan fiction for this after a burst of ideas!!! Sorry, but I only know the film: I can't put my hands on any X-men comics without having to buy them (I'm short on money, and like it's X-mas time...). So I was wondering what were the birthdays of the X-men (Scott, Jean, Rogue....) I'll be needing them. It'll would great if you felt pity for me and give them me. Anyway, It's the third version I've put down, the first was starting about the same as this. The second was starting about a year after this with so many back flashes that it was starting to get confusing. (more than in this, I promise!!!)  
  
Disclaimer: Bla Bla... You know what I mean. These characters (most of them) is Marvel, Fox propriety. The plot is mine in this story so if I fall on any of you that have taken my ideas...  
  
Well, here it is, I'll let you read hoping that you'll remember to review at the end.  
  
  
  
Rogue jogged down the corridor, towards the west-wing, Logan's dog tags jumping on her chest at every step. She knew those numbers by heart: « 458 25 243 ». She was dressed in forest green sports clothes and was wearing long black gloves.  
  
Outside, Scott caressed a young woman's face, with red hair with a loving expression in his eyes, coming from his heart.  
  
Bobby tapped his watch before looking up at his friends. Magma was trembling, Jubilee had her eyes closed and Kitty was meditating.  
  
"I don't think she'll make it," Bobby announced.  
  
Professor Charles Xavier jumped in his chair with fear and set off the evacuation alarm.  
  
The woman with the red hair lifted her hands to Scott's face.  
  
The door burst open revealing Rogue. "Let's get ready!" she yelled joining her friends.  
  
"Are you sure of this?" Magma asked worried.  
  
"This is the only way, we can't back out."  
  
Xavier was wheeling down the same corridor that Rogue had taken. How had she done it: blocking him completely out of her mind?  
  
Rogue, Jubilee, Kitty, Magma and Bobby held hands.  
  
Scott's glasses were delicately lifted from his nose.  
  
"It's not going to work!" Magma whined. She jumped up from her sitting position and ran for it.  
  
Xavier had arrived to the door and was about to open it when...  
  
****  
  
"What a ruddy morning," Logan thought. He put on his boxers before standing up out of bed. He didn't even look at the naked woman that was lying down next to him.  
  
He stretched contracting his heavy muscles. After have looked around the room and catching sight of the girl he walked over to the sink and mirror, scratching his back.  
  
He looked at himself in it. His cheeks, above the upper lip and chin were too hairy for his licking. He shot out a claw and started to shave.  
  
The girl had put the radio on.  
  
"Today, Miss Fox will be giving the national news."  
  
It passed to a feminine voice. "Last night it seems that the United Nations assembly has wined victory against the Mutant defenders. The final decision has been spoken: the regulation of Mutants will be put in place in the following days. All over USA, people were in the streets celebrating the news with lightened hearts."  
  
Logan continued shaving with a grim expression. This was going very wrong. He decided that he would phone Marie after have freshened up.  
  
"Just after the decision was announced by Sir William Gramm, the renown school for gifted youngsters founded by Charles Xavier, in Westchester, New York had it's foundations shaking with the explosion of the it's West-Wing. Five students perished and the Professor Xavier himself is now in a deep coma."  
  
Logan slipped and cut his cheek with his claw. The gash closed immediately while he picked up the phone of his hotel room and dialled Marie's phone number.  
  
"What's up Wolvy?" the woman asked looking at Logan from the bed. She had a mall on her left cheek. She put her fingers threw her black hair and yawned. She had large hips and full breasts in which she thought that she could always count on.  
  
The phone ran two times until someone picked up.  
  
"Logan?" someone said from the other side of the line.  
  
"Scott? Logan recognised the voice from the tapes that Marie had recorded from her classes. 'What you are doing in Rogue's room!" he barked.  
  
"I was looking around."  
  
Something hit him hard and cold in the stomach, why would Scooter be in Marie's room in the first place.  
  
"Has something happened that..." he started.  
  
"I'm sorry Logan to announce you this, but Rogue..." Scott tried to find the words and the courage to speak them. "Yesterday, there was an explosion and she..."  
  
"Spit it out!" Logan yelled desperate.  
  
"I'm afraid she's dead."  
  
Anger in the pit of the stomach, Logan pierced the wall with his claws. The women yelled out in surprise. Logan took a couple of heavy breaths leaning against the wall. Standing back up straight, he threw the telephone at the window, breaking it and sending bits of glass on the floor.  
  
"What's the bad temper for?" she asked in distaste getting up, without anything on herself.  
  
Logan pushed her away when she tried to kiss him.  
  
"Sorry, Viviane, this was a mistake," he told her rushing to get dressed.  
  
"It's Gwen, by the way," she said putting her hands on her hips. While Logan bent down to grab his trousers, she ventured herself towards him to stroke his back. This only got a bad reaction out of the Wolverine.  
  
"Get the hell out of my way!" he growled at her.  
  
"So be it!" she said annoyed, picking her things off the floor. After have put her small dress on, she walked out, slamming the door.  
  
Logan didn't watch her leave.  
  
***  
  
Logan didn't stop much on the trip to New York. But he did a lot thinking. For him it couldn't be possible for Marie to be dead. It was all a big joke, a stupid one, that was for sure. How could get exploded? She was just a kid that didn't ask for any problem. If there were danger, she would have got out of its way. He then felt disgusted with himself, for what he had did last night.  
  
This last thought brought him to one of his conversations with Marie.  
  
{"Hello, Kid! So, how's School?" he asked her.  
  
"Fine," she answered with a sigh and drowsy voice. It was about midnight when he had telephoned her.  
  
"Com on, what's the matter?"  
  
"Ah've been wondering, since last night. Ah promise ya that it was accidental!" she quickly added.  
  
"It's safe with me," he reassured her.  
  
"Of course it's safe with ya, and it's safe with me'. It's just Ah got this weird dream where ya and this... Bar girl were making out."  
  
"Great," he thought. "I'm sorry you got those bloody memories," he told her.  
  
"And Ah confess: Ah liked it."  
  
Logan jumped up from where he had been sitting. "Now, Marie. These were big mistakes..."  
  
"Thanks," she interrupted him.  
  
This got him up side down, he didn't understand. He scratched his head like if would give him the answer. "Can you get this straight?" he asked completely lost.  
  
"Ah've always wondered how the "thing" went. Because of mah skin, Ah mean," she stammered. "Ah couldn't have, ever."  
  
Logan understood what she meant. "I suppose you got my feelings too, at the same time." He kept forgetting that there was this skin thing, honestly. Marie seemed to be just a normal teen-ager when he was on the phone with her.  
  
"Yeah," she answered.  
  
"If you're wondering what's love at the same time, I can tell you that it ain't the same."  
  
"Mah inside Logan told me' the same."  
  
"I'm happy that's he's always there with you. So, what were you dreaming about now?"  
  
"It was a nightmare. Magneto had caught me' again, or Ah actually went to him on purpose, Ah'm not sure anymore."  
  
"The Magnet is safe in his plastic cell."  
  
"Ah know." He heard her yawn and understood that he should now let her sleep.  
  
"Good night, Kid. Have sweet dreams."  
  
Marie knew it was the end of the conversation, even if she wanted it to continue it all night. "Ya too," she said before putting down the phone. Logan listened to the beeps before doing the same.}  
  
Logan took a sharp turn. There were maple trees on the side of the road, their leaves green. They would soon turn golden and red; autumn wasn't far. The sky was blue without any clouds; it had everything for it to be a wonderful day. However, for Logan it was grey. He cursed hundreds of times the motorbike: the little red button wasn't working anymore and he was going normal speed.  
  
{ "Thanks for the phone."  
  
"I was nothing. I just wanted to keep in touch. And like it's Christmas..."  
  
"I hated those letters, I had the impression you were hiding something from me," she told him.  
  
Logan looked around. He was in a cottage with traces of dried blood on the wooden floor. It was snowing outside. He had stopped there instead of the next town, too tired to continue. Instead of any human welcome, he had found a mutant nailed to the wall, half decomposed, with scales for skin. He had took him off and buried him deep.  
  
Logan had then ventured inside the cottage sinking some shelter from the wetness. Most things were gone or broken. You could see where paintings were missing, all the shelves, cupboards were empty. The table was broken. It also looked like that there had been a fight.  
  
"I'm not," he lied.  
  
"How's the search?"  
  
"I'm still on my way for Alkali Lake."  
  
"Yeah, that's what Xavier told me'."  
  
"Anyway, tell me about yourself."  
  
There was a pause. "Ah'm perfectly fine. But Ah do miss ya. Ah still have occasionally some bad dreams, but Xavier is working on them. And Jean."  
  
"How's Jeanny by the way?"  
  
"She's slaving around for this next World Summit, in Paris next September. Ah still have mah usual blood tests with her each day anyway. Ah wish she would have so much work that she would forget."  
  
"What the hell! Why are they sticking needles in you?"  
  
"For tests, to see how Ah'm going."  
  
"And what do they say?"  
  
There was another pause. "Ah'm not sure."  
  
Logan had the impression that she was uneasy about something. He changed the subjects. "I hope you friends help you too with your nightmares."  
  
"Yeah. What's Alaska like?"  
  
"Its snowy."  
  
The conversation went on about how she would love to go there one day, that she would visit the place under any excuse she would find.  
  
"I could ask you to join me, but you have school, and I don't think it would please any of the X-geeks."  
  
"Ya're right about the X-men, but Ah could easily jump school."  
  
"You're a genius?"  
  
"Magneto was a very cultivated person."  
  
There was an uneasy silence.  
  
"But they don't know about it, Ah have the impression Xavier thinks he's taken them away. But it seems Ah could play the cello easily, although Ah had never touched one before. It freaks me' out. "  
  
"Marie, I don't want you to have any of my memories, or Magneto's." Tell Jean, or Wheels. Do what ever you want, but I want them out of your head, or I'll come back and box them out if it's the only way"  
  
Logan felt awful, he heard Maries breathing become deeper.  
  
"Ah can't, they'll put me' back into therapy. Just like when Ah attacked Xavier."  
  
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to protect you," he tried to comfort her. "Maybe coming back isn't that a bad idea, I can't keep my word far from you." His knuckles where white from gripping the receiver. He gritted his teeth.  
  
"Don't worry about me'. Ah can take care of mahself. It's just Ah hated Xavier looking in mah head. Ah don't think Ah could stand it without ya in the corner of mah mind."  
  
"Then keep me safely there." }  
  
Another sharp turn, Logan felt his trouser at his knee lightly touch the ground. The motor groaned under the pressure of the speed. He looked occasionally in the dense trees.  
  
He suddenly lost complete control of the vehicle, losing his balance, the motorcycle crashed on to it's side and slid in the line of trees.  
  
He roared in pain and anger as he stood up. His left leg was warm flesh, his trouser was ripped showing the bloodied skin. His left arm wasn't as bad, the thick lather of his jacket had protected it well. The flesh repaired it's self instantly. He couldn't say the same about the motorbike. He inspected it and found out the cause of his fall: there was no more petrol. He kicked it in rage wondering how he had let the gas run so low. He had forgot to fill up before leaving. He kicked it again.  
  
He sat down, trying to put things straight.  
  
First, the School had blown up. How? Rogue, dead. He refused this. Wheels in coma? He got out of it last time. Rogue would be just hurt. He would just do like last time, come up to her and put his bare skin against hers. He looked at the motorcycle.  
  
How far could the next town be? Less far if he took off now.  
  
The Wolverine got up and sprinted down the road.  
  
  
  
Well, there we are. Now I expect you to REVIEW, you're free to ask me any questions, but it would be great if you could give me the birthday dates of the Heroes, I'd need specially Scott's.  
  
Thanks in advance. 


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter. I thought I should put it up. In case "any of you" wish to read more.  
  
Little note: the little stars are kind of part of the story, it gives details about time and place. Look out for them.  
  
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the stay!!!  
  
  
  
***************************** *****************************  
  
December 26.  
  
Rogue observed the elevator for at least three-quarters of an hour. She had put her hair in a pony tail and wore a black top with orange fluorescent gloves that went up to her elbows. The students looked at her wondering what she was doing out of her room. She was most of the time in there when there wasn't any lessons. Kitty crossed her twice, and at the third time stopped in front of her.  
  
"What's up Rogue?"  
  
"Nothing special."  
  
Kitty looked to where Rogue's gaze was.  
  
"The elevator looks very interesting," she commented.  
  
"It depends on what ya use it for," Rogue stated. She walked over to it's door and called the lift.  
  
"You're going down to the lab?" Kitty asked.  
  
"Yep."  
  
The elevator opened, Rogue walked in. The door was closed when Kitty phased threw it.  
  
"Do you mind if I come with you?" she asked.  
  
***  
  
They were both in the white corridor. Kitty readjusted her pink tube top and made sure that one of the her brown locks of hair fell on the side of her face.  
  
"Do you think Scott will be there?"  
  
"Miss Grey went out with Mr Summer a half of hour ago. My answer is no," Rogue answered placidly.  
  
She marched down to the lab.  
  
"So what're doing here?"  
  
"I came down to get my blood results."  
  
"I hate getting my blood sucked out. Last time was when I got my arm broken. I was on this bike when this car came out of no where." Rogue didn't listen to her.  
  
She was now in front of the two medical beds. She approached the second one and put her hand on it. She shuddered. Logan hated those kind of beds, which smelt too clean. She understood him, each time she had to lie down on one of them she felt the same. Danger.  
  
She ventured herself towards Jean's private space that was locked, where she was sure to find what she was searching for. What did her blood tests say?  
  
"To make sure you're well," Jean had told her. Rogue felt suspicious now, after what Logan had told her.  
  
There was a code pad at the door. Rogue closed her eyes and tried to remember. It was useless. Instead she searched for magnifying glass in the draws of the room. She finally found one and took it to look at the keypad with it. Some of the white drawn numbers looked fade compared to the others. She decided that those where the numbers of the code.  
  
"What you're trying to do?" Rogue heard Kitty ask. "You're not trying to brake threw, are you?"  
  
Rogue didn't answer. She lightly touched the buttons that were sure to have been used in Jean's code. "0;2;8;9," she told them aloud.  
  
"Rogue, why don't you just ask me?"  
  
Rogue looked at her with a disgusted expression, mostly coming from her Logan part. "Ah don't need any help."  
  
Kitty just grabbed her and pulled her threw the door, phasing.  
  
Rogue stood there glaring at Kitty.  
  
"Don't mention it!" she squeaked with a grin.  
  
Marie turned her attention to the room. Everything was well put away, a place for everything, and everything in it's place. It wouldn't be hard to find her blood analyse.  
  
She went over to the draws written on it: "R to S" and opened it. She passed Rash, Rinay, Rhans, those she knew and could put a face to their name. But Radial, Reams, Riddle she didn't know. She took out the file with her name on: "Rogue".  
  
"Do you think theirs mine?" Kitty questioned running over to the draws.  
  
Rogue opened hers. There was a photo of her with her hair white at the front and one without, before she had been taken by Magneto... There was her general story, the suspicion of her origin because of her accent. Then there were the medical papers. She passed over it quickly, her hand holding the file, trembling.  
  
"Hey, Jean thinks I'm pretty stable!" Kitty exclaimed looking in hers.  
  
"Ah think we should leave," Rogue said dryly.  
  
"But we've just arrived!" Kitty protested.  
  
"I heard Jean say that she would have a half an hour brake, and I think the time is nearly up."  
  
***  
  
Rogue slowly closed her room's door behind herself and let herself slide down to her knees, tears in her eyes.  
  
"Damn you, Magneto," she sobbed.  
  
She picked herself up and walked to her desk where she fell on her chair. The desk was messy: clothes, used handkerchiefs, crumpled paper and homework, pens, ink cartridges, hairbrush and elastics, it had all kinds of things on it. Marie's eyes were red and her jaw was clenched. With anger she pushed everything off her desk in a gush of anger. It clattered with metal, glass and other. With the back of her hand she took some of the wetness on her cheeks away, but more tears were falling.  
  
Her gaze fell on the floor where all the things that had been previously on her desk had gone. Underneath a black top was a metallic chain. She bent down and picked it up revealing dangling at its end two dog tags.  
  
"You should have let me die," she said to no one in particular.  
  
********* ***************** ******************** *****************  
  
Logan stood in front of that same desk. Rogue didn't seem to be a tidy person. Jeannie was behind him. She had tried to comfort him for an hour now, she was now trying mentally. He felt waves of good feelings, of happy feelings being pushed into his brain. The place smelt cinnamon.  
  
"Don't do that," Logan warned her. The happy feelings left suddenly.  
  
"I think that you should come down with me, so we can discuss something," Jean adventured.  
  
"You go."  
  
This brought a sigh out of her. "It has been a shock to everyone, a pain deep in our hearts, but I'm afraid we can't change the past."  
  
"Just leave me."  
  
He felt drained, out of breath. He had arrived to find Jean at the door.  
  
{"Where is she?" Logan had yelled at her.  
  
"She's gone."}  
  
Logan was left alone, still looking at the mess. He crouched down to look at was on the floor, picking things up. Some travel guides for Alaska, a half eaten lollypop, some papers that were stuck together with chewing gum, a map, some clean nickers, an expensive pen, a black bra, and what looked like a dairy. In this last one he was more interested. A lock closed it. He wondered if Marie would have minded that he read it. She knew everything of him, but didn't know as much on her. With a claw he cut the lock and flipped the dairy open.  
  
"Dec, 27.  
  
Twinkle little star, Far above my reach, Where you burn so bright.  
  
Lies first make you feel good, but then so bad. That was how I felt before yesterday when he phoned. I didn't go down to the lab today, so Jean came up to see what was going on. The person that I thought was my only friend that was around turned out to be a lying freak. It's funny how we all look a like in the end. Logan should have let me die; it would have spared me some pain. I fell on his dog tags yesterday, I wonder if that was lie too. He's probably in this bitches bed."  
  
Logan cringed. It was half-true. But it wasn't what pained him most. How could Marie have wanted to die? He flipped over some white pagers to the next date.  
  
"Jan, 18  
  
Logan phoned again. I don't know what to think; he sounded half desperate."  
  
He remembered that moment. He had been at the last town before Alkali lake, a town of two houses, if it can be called a town in the first place.  
  
"I half want him to come back. Xavier searched my head again and took out whatever I had left of Logan, Magneto. Whatever he found. But I hide them well, I think he underestimates me. Really, I manage to play with them like puppets, put them away when I want. But Logan has been more present than usual, he even said good night to me. And Magneto seems to have half disappeared. He's probably sulking in his corner. But for now, there's no one. Not even outside of my head."  
  
There was some more incomprehensive scribbling after another couple of blank pages.  
  
"Jan 24, or 25,  
  
Where are you! I need you! Please, come back. Make him go away and take me back... Home? Is this home? Where most of the people here are scared of me, where they lie to me."  
  
There was a smudging of ink and of what smelled tears.  
  
"Except Kitty, she's not frightened, because she can walk right threw me! She tries to hang around with me, but I do just like if she was invisible, frustrating her to exasperation. In this dream I was in this place from where I could see the moon and Earth, in small. It's probably from Hemlock, she tried to be my room mate, but with no success. Her power is something like sight seeing, what she calls soul seeing. I call it divination. She actually predicted that I would touch her. I wonder if, really, I'll go into space. It was cold, but in a way that made me feel secure. Xavier took all her memories away from me. I think I had them for about an hour before he... I wonder if I wrote down about it... I'm sorry for Hemlock, she was nearly like a friend."  
  
  
  
"Looking around?" a voice said behind Logan. He jumped around to find Professor Charles Xavier in his wheel chair at the door. Logan still held the dairy, letting it drop to floor to try and make Wheels think it was another abandoned thing of Rogues, which she had left on the floor.  
  
"Quite so," Logan said, his voice like ice.  
  
"It is sad," he said wheeling in the room, "That she changed so. I think I could have helped her if she had wanted. But I suppose this might be the best way."  
  
Anger spilled in Logan's head. How could Chuck say such a thing!  
  
"You abandoned her! You assh..."  
  
"Is everything alright, Sir?"  
  
Logan blinked. Professor Xavier was nowhere in sight, instead was a boy with dark skin, age ten, his head pocking from behind the door.  
  
Logan ignored him to pick the dairy back up, but the boy didn't leave.  
  
"This is Rogues room, right?"  
  
"Haven't you got anything else to do, Kid?" Logan growled, making the boy disappear.  
  
Alone with himself, he scratched his head, wondering about what he had just seen. It made him remember that Wheels was meant to be in the coma.  
  
************  
  
Rogue swung her legs on the metallic bed to lie down straight on it. It's touch was cold like ice.  
  
{Hemlock looked at Rogue from across the room.  
  
"You know what I dreamt about last night?"  
  
Marie was looking threw her physique lessons. It was all so easy. Physiques, Maths, Spanish, French, Italian, music... Eric Lensherr had had an excellent scholarship with this private teacher in the 1950ies, and she was feeling boredom knocking at the door. But she couldn't let the teachers know that she knew everything already, they would take everything away... When she had played the cello, the felling of loss after Xavier had discovered and taken the knowledge of playing the instrument away, had left a hole making her feel incomplete. She wouldn't even enter the music class anymore.  
  
"No, Ah don't know of what ya dreamt about last night."  
  
"What would happen if you touched someone to death?" she asked instead.  
  
"Ah think Ah'd be sorry for him or her. Then Ah wouldn't remember much because Professor X would take the person's memories away."  
  
Hemlock had turned up to the school one night like if it had been her home all her life. Professor X had thought about it like an opportunity for Rogue and had quickly put the girl into her keeping. She was twelve, with a heart shaped face and black hair, a bit chubby. Instead of a teenager with hormone problems, she turned out to be grumpy like an old bachelor.  
  
"Why do ya ask?"  
  
She just got up, took some paper and a pen, and gave them to Rogue.  
  
"Write as fast as you can because I'd like to be remembered."  
  
And then, like cold ice, Rogue felt Hemlocks hands on her face.}  
  
Yes, the metallic bed was cold. Rogue turned her head to look at Mystique.  
  
"It fits!" she said with a false grin.  
  
Marie had cut her hair short, down to her ears; she had no time to brush it so it was full of knots. She wore a forest green tight suit. She didn't have any gloves anymore, not even in the cold weather of Alaska. She put a lock of white hair behind her ear, which just fell back to the side of head, too short to be held back. Her skin was pale and a bruise was forming on her cheek.  
  
The shape shifter looked at her with cold eyes, unmoving. She then finally spoke: "You have courage, Child, or madness. I can't decide."  
  
"Think about it like madness," Rogue said jumping off the high metallic bed. "For I'm not myself!" she exclaimed without any of her old accent.  
  
She walked out of the white room that she had been in with an elegant sway.  
  
  
  
************  
  
He didn't care. It had been enough for him to choose to leave.  
  
Jean had explained to him what had happened. Mystique had came to the school.  
  
{Scooter left the room, not wanting to hear about it. Jean looked at him go with a pained expression.  
  
She then turned back to Logan. " Scott found her and they battled. It didn't turn out well. He lost his glasses and..."  
  
She rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. Logan a tinge of anger. He was now more interested in the blood analyses.  
  
"Rogue seemed frightened of you, of all the X-geeks that you are. What did you do to her," he said menacing.  
  
"We tried to help, to take all the memories of you and Magneto away."  
  
"She didn't want to, you scared her!" Logan yelled jumping up, anger raging threw him. "You damn frightened her!" he said accusingly.  
  
In a wave of anger, he took out her dairy from his pocket and opened it at some of the first pages and read out loud: ".I didn't go down to the lab today, so Jean came up to see what was going on. The person that I thought was one of my only friends turned out to be a lying freak!"  
  
He put the lines in front of her nose. She frowned in pain and closed her eyes. Logan put back the dairy in his pocket.  
  
"I know," she whispered. "I had to keep it from her. It would have only hurt her more, you understand."  
  
"No I don't. What would hurt her more?" Logan asked.  
  
"You don't know?" she asked, her bottom lip trembling.  
  
He kept silent, waiting for her to spit it out.  
  
"Rogue was poorly. She didn't have much time to live. Nine to ten months back then. Magnetos machine affected her more than we had thought. That's way I took daily test."  
  
She opened back her eyes, they were shinny, wet on the sides. Logan let go a moan of grief and looked down at the table.  
  
"She always had your dog tags near hand," Jean said trying to lighten the mood. "She would clutch them for hours in class..."}  
  
His bag on his back, he looked at the west wing. It was rubble made of stone, wood, broken glass...  
  
He bent down to touch the ruins with the palm of his hand. It had nothing of useful but it made him feel closer to her by touching the walls that had seen her last. He realised that he was crying when a tear fell on the ground, making a darker patch on the gravel.  
  
He felt his heart tighten as he remembered his last conversation.  
  
{"Are you coming back soon?"  
  
It was August and the air felt heavy and hot.  
  
"Ah think I'll be there for Xmas."  
  
"Great! Will Ah have a present like last year?"  
  
"Yeah, sure. That's what Xmas is about."  
  
"It's meant to be Christ's birthday too, ain't it?"  
  
"I've never really considerate it that way."  
  
"Ya didn't even care that is was Christmas before, why do ya even think about giving me' a present?"  
  
"You're cheating on me, Marie! Using my memories against me!" Logan chuckled, not angry at all.  
  
She didn't seem to care about this. "So. Why?"  
  
"I suppose it's because I care about someone now."}  
  
He hated himself for those words. He cared about her but had left her where danger could be found easily. If he really had cared about her, in the first place he would have stayed.  
  
He fumbled threw her dairy and looked at the next date.  
  
"April 1,  
  
It's Aprils fool day today and I had the scare of my life. I thought it was time for me to go. It all started with a pain in the heart. Then it took the rest of the body giving the impression that thousands of needles were being driven into me. I really thought it was over. I woke up in the lab but left before Jean would appear. Looking at my arm now it looks like she's suck some blood up. I couldn't hide it anymore from Jub, I told her everything. What a big joke my life has turned out to be.  
  
I look awful, my legs are full of bruise, my face isn't in such a bad state, thanks goodness."  
  
  
  
********  
  
Pain; a wound deep in your chest that never seems to heal. Rogue pressed that part with her fist. Her face was a mob of blue and purple marks with some rare white ones.  
  
Jubilee looked down at her. She wore her favourite yellow jacket.  
  
"Hey Sleeping Beauty. You've finally awoken."  
  
"Ah hate it when it happens, Ah feel weak an' defenceless."  
  
"We're here. You have nothing to worry about. And your special accent has even come back."  
  
Rogue bit her lip. She wasn't too sure about her decision anymore.  
  
*********  
  
Well, finished for now. All you have to do to take now is press REVIEW and tell me what you think, your opinion is like gold for me. 


	3. Chapter 3

This are getting more and more, let's say: complicated. I hope you'll enjoy and read the next chapter. Anyway, theroguepheonix, your question should be answered in this chapter. ***grins so evilly*** This is supposed to be drama, so don't be surprised if all the characters are depressed.  
  
I wish you a good read, hoping for some more REVIEWS. And I thank dearly those that have already.  
  
Jubilee had left the room saying that Mystique wanted to see her. Rogue was left alone. There wasn't much here. It was a medical room, specialised for when Rogue had one of her "falls". But Jub had left her newspaper on the bed. Rogue reached for it and looked at the first page. There was a photo of Arian XII. It would be launched in a five days, heading for the International Space Lab. Marie sighted, it would be soon finished. They only had a couple of moves to do. She then turned the paper to look at the back. It was the cinema news, this time about Jurassic Park 5 coming out in the theatres.  
  
She relaxed, sinking low in the pillow, trying not to think about the hospital dress she was wearing. She just hated anything doing with medical performance. But she would have to face it soon or later.  
  
She closed her eyes trying to go to sleep. It finally came, slowly and surely.  
  
It couldn't be a normal dream, for there was too many details. Like the branches of fir trees above her head hiding the moon and stars, the noise of pine needles cracking under her steps, the smell of blood and the moaning. This could only be a dream from Hemlock, the mutant that had given Marie her power and life. She winced at the memory, she wished so much that the rest of what remained of the girl in her head could disappear completely.  
  
Rogue still advanced until she came upon the scene. She forgot to breath, dead in her tracks, dread filling her veins.  
  
*************** *******************  
  
Logan had being walking for a while in the streets of New York. The sun was gone. But he didn't care: head down he continued to walk.  
  
He didn't realise that he was getting in the darkest place of New York. A car was battered and burnt on the pavement. He went around it.  
  
A couple of girls on the side of the road with very short skirts just glanced at him as he passed. He didn't look like a person that wanted to have some fun.  
  
A man stepped in front of him, a gun pointed to the chest.  
  
"Give me your money buddy," he hissed.  
  
Logan didn't hear him and continued to walk against the weapon when, suddenly, the shot entered him. A couple of girls screamed and ran away. Logan couldn't ignore getting blasted in the chest and looked up. His insides were burning and he moaned as he fell to the ground.  
  
The man was dressed in black. He took Logan's bag and started to search his pockets and fell on the dairy. Logan had been looking at him without reacting, but when he saw that the man was taking Marie's dairy, his claws shot out. The man responded by another shot, not well positioned, the cartridge sinking in the neck. He then got up and ran away.  
  
Logan could only feel guilty and wished it was the end.  
  
Warm liquid poured out of his neck making a puddle of blood around his head. There was still a glitter of consciousness as someone picked him up and dragged him in a darker and smaller street.  
  
********  
  
Jean lied down next to Scott. Their room had wood panelled walls, shinning with varnish in the small light coming from the bed lamp.  
  
She snuggled against him, wearing her silk night-gown, her hair undone, a cascade of red falling from her head. She was still beautiful even thought she looked tired, her face lacking some colour from the effort of staying awake. Scott was still all dressed, no expression on his face.  
  
"Please, relax, Scott," she mumbled in his shirt half-asleep.  
  
"I've been blind," he said.  
  
"By love, honey... By love," she whispered, her eyes closed, the words more difficult to come out.  
  
{ They had been sitting on a bench under a tree. The moon had been peaking from behind some clouds.  
  
"I assure you I can. Scott, trust me," the women with red hair said.  
  
"I only ask to do so. But I don't think we should, it's too dangerous," Scott wanted Jean to do it.  
  
"The professor assured me that I could. You don't think that I would do anything as risky before asking Xavier if I could."  
  
Scott looked down. "If you say so, I accept."  
  
The women smiled and put her hands towards his head and gently lifted his glasses off.  
  
And hell came upon Earth.}  
  
He had been tricked by Mystique. He had wanted Jean to see his eyes. There had been no fight, no bravery, no punches. It had been a child's game for her.  
  
Scott got up, touching his glasses unconsciously, escaping from his fiancées grasp. Insomnia took him to the garden.  
  
It looked dull since Storm had left. She had something like a green thumb making all the plants she cared about green as new. But she had left with the children for New Zealand to make sure they were well protected and the garden was now falling dead.  
  
He walked up and down some fanned roses, his mind tortured by his thoughts. Then a smell came to him, the smell of death. You always remember that smell, and when it's the first time you smelt it, you know straight away what it is.  
  
Scott, with caution walked towards it, fingering his glasses.  
  
He held his breath when he found out from what it was coming from. His long life's friend was lying on the ground, his blue face with an expression of slumber.  
  
"Kurt!"  
  
Scott kneeled next to him, taking a three-fingered blue hand in his. The blue elf had had gone on vacation wanting to see the Egyptian pyramids. Scott had called him on his mobile but he hadn't answered. Kitty had been someone special for Kurt, and they were now both gone.  
  
And it was when the sun decided to loom up from the horizon.  
  
**********  
  
Logan woke up in a bed in a cosy room. There was red wallpaper and oriental decoration. His gaze fell next to him.  
  
Sitting on a chair, looking straight at him was a woman-girl, black hair. But he recognised her because of the mall ton her left cheek.  
  
"Gwen?" he croaked.  
  
"Glad you remembered my name this time!" she exclaimed. The distaste in her voice hadn't gone since last time. "I found you in a pretty bad state."  
  
She touched Logan's hair, it was matted with dried blood.  
  
She was wearing a orange gown, white elephants decorating the cuffs. Her hair was put back in a long plat falling to the waist.  
  
"In a very bad state," she said, her fingertips touching lightly his neck where no mark could be seen. "You're a mutty."  
  
Logan didn't care, he kept still without speaking. When he had fallen into blackness it had been relief, something nice and soft taking him away. He was quite disappointed to wake up and feel that the same pain was clutching his heart again.  
  
"Well," she finally said getting up, "You can call me Shade and thank me later."  
  
She took off her gown to reveal her work uniform of a cashier. "I'll be away all morning, so if you need anything you'll have to get yourself." With those last words, she was out.  
  
After a half an hour, he dragged himself out of bed, bare chest. The place smelt oriental perfume, spiced and stuffy, probably from the kind of sticks you burnt. He preferred better Rogue's cinnamon room. His T-shirt was lying clean on the back of the chair, a hole in one of it's sides. He quickly put it on and wondered in the rest of the apartment. He found his coat easily and searched the pockets. The dairy was missing, but he felt something cold at the bottom of one of them. He slowly took it out. In his hand was his dog tags, the ones that Marie always wore.  
  
******  
  
Jean had been woken up after just ten minutes of sleep. She was now in the lab inspecting Kurt, or what was left of Kurt. One of his hands were missing, it looked like it had been ripped off, Jean guessed it was the work of a scavenger after Kurt's death. He was covered in blood from wounds ripped a bit all over without being any puncture in the clothes.  
  
Scott stood, his back turned from the bed.  
  
"I have the impression I've already seen this," Jean said slowly. She backed away and took off her gloves. "On Logan."  
  
At the name, Scott lifted his head, like if something had suddenly revealed it's self.  
  
"When he had been drained by Rogue."  
  
"There must be something else, dear," Jean quickly said deciding now that she should check on the professor. She walked into another room. There lying on a bed was the professor, still, with artificial breathing. It had been impossible for Jean to enter her mind, hard walls were blocking her out. Trying several times already she had slammed into them at each time.  
  
Scott followed her. "Rogue killed Kurt and used his power to zap away when Mystique blew the west-wing up!" he yelled thinking he had found the answer to all their problems, his arms raised like if he was embracing the proof. "It's not the first time she's done it!"  
  
Jean refused to say such a thing. Rogue couldn't be as evil. She was such a quite child that always stayed out of any trouble, just for the sake of making Logan be able to keep his promise towards her.  
  
"Scott! Rogue is dead! Kitty, Magma, Bobby, Jubilee!" Jean said, crying, "I've searched for them! I so wished that they had escaped the explosion that I used Cerebro! But they aren't there, they are nowhere!"  
  
"She killed Kurt before then!"  
  
The pressure she had endured for a couple of days burst out. Her knees were wobbly. Not managing to stand up she held to the professor's bed crying loudly. Scott calmed down straight away and took her in his arms trying to comfort her, saying sweet words in her ear, hugging her tightly, her head in his chest.  
  
Nothing had gone right. Jean had failed horribly at the UN in Paris, then Mystique came. The death of several pupils, Xavier in the coma, the children were evacuated, sent to New Zealand for protection. Only Scott and Jean were left here to make sure that what was left of the School would be destroyed. For America was becoming too dangerous for any mutant. Then discovering Kurt, what else could happen?  
  
"Tomorrow," Jean breathed. "We leave tomorrow."  
  
"What do we about Rogue's things?" Scott asked. "She has no parents or relatives to send them to."  
  
"We take them."  
  
******  
  
Rogue was furious.  
  
"Mystique!" she yelled in the corridors still dressed in her hospital gown. "Get your blue but here!"  
  
She took the elevator. It took her up.  
  
There was a tower, grey and slick in the middle of nowhere. This middle of nowhere was a hill with fir trees surrounding it. The grass was thick and in this case, wet. It had rained here in Alaska.  
  
Rogue found Mystique there, at the control panel. She didn't look away from the screen which was showing the surroundings in heat waves. Everything was bluish with some very small red dots.  
  
"You've taken the dog tags!" Rogue accused her.  
  
To this, Mystique did turn around. "What do you mean, Child? Those metallic things couldn't have disappeared."  
  
"Exactly. And you're first on the list of people that could want to take them from me!" Rogue said advancing, menacing with an ungloved hand. "You keep trying to make me forget about Wolverine!"  
  
"I haven't taken them," Mystique defended herself. Rogue saw that she wasn't lying.  
  
"Where are they then?" Rogue had the impression that she had been washed of everything she knew, everything she believed in, wondering deep in a corner of her mind who she was really.  
  
"Never mind! There's other things to do than worrying about stupid bits of metal!" she exclaimed clenching her fist.  
  
Mystique looked at her with pity, Rogue more looked like someone that had escaped from an asylum than a school. She hoped it had nothing to do with Miss Lee, the tags missing, she was always up to something that didn't follow to the plan. Rogue had to think about something else than what she would lose.  
  
It was when Kitty decided to show up in a black tight suit (her old X-men suit), surfacing threw the floor with Jubilee carrying something in her hand. They both looked grim. Even Miss Lee's yellow coat didn't seem to make her look happier than Kitty.  
  
"The dairy!" Jubilee proclaimed, showing a booklet.  
  
Rogue lunged for it. "What's it doing here?" She was all shaky, retreating with the small book. "Ah had left it at the Mansion.!" She yelled. Opening the thing, she could smell someone different from herself that had been touching all the pages. Two in fact, one them was Jubilee, the other... She discovered that the lock had been neatly cut threw like a piece of thread with sharp scissors.  
  
Mystique snatched it from her hands. Jubilee and Kitty held back helplessly as Mystique ripped the dairy to shreds. The lock clattered on the floor with the pieces of paper that slowly floated to the rejoin it. Rogue took a strand of paper from the pile, a glitter in her eyes.  
  
"Why?" she questioned the shape-shifter looking up from her crouched position, her tantrum forgotten.  
  
"Leave the past where you left it, we've got the future plan."  
  
Rogue felt a tinge of cold go up her spine and looked away.  
  
"Yes, and in this future, is it planned for us to survive?" Jubilee couldn't suppress the question that had been bothering her since she had gone to find the dairy. "It's not I enjoy life or anything, but I would find it convenient if I stayed alive. Because Kurt didn't make it."  
  
Kitty looked at her friend in shock.  
  
"Kurt couldn't have died He would just disappear..." she said making a jest that could be perceived as Kurt evaporated into thin air.  
  
When Rogue turned around, her eyes were red, a sly grin splattered across her face. "How did you think we escaped the explosion, Honey?"  
  
"We... You borrowed some of his power," she said taking a step back.  
  
"Oups," she sneered, "my hands must have stayed too long around his neck," she said grabbing a invisible Kurt. "I don't know if he died suffocated or drained." She lifted her hands to match her words. "What do you think?"  
  
Jubilee held her breath at the horror she witnessed. Rogue had left leaving her body in the possession of those that held fortress in her mind.  
  
"Rogue? Where are you?" she whispered.  
  
Kitty had taken a second step back. "I should have known better, this is pure... madness!" she spat the last word out as Mystique launched at her pushing her to the floor, seeking to break her neck. But she easily phased threw the blue shape shifter. "This was a big mistake," she proclaimed, "I'll make sure you finish your days in a cell." And she was gone, sinking threw the wall.  
  
The glare Mystique then gave Rogue was pure hate. Then it calmed down to become pity. Jubilee felt the same, pity for her friend, glad that her suffering would only expend to five more days if Kitty didn't reveal everything too soon.  
  
Rogue got up, no, it was still not Rogue. Jubilee secretly called the body: "It." She tried her best to look friendly. "You need some more rest," she told Rogue taking her by the elbow and guiding her to the elevator. "It looks like a truck run you down." It more looked like she was dead and buried.  
  
When they were both gone, Mystique took back her place on the chair, deciding they would need to act more swiftly than planned.  
  
Ok, I know this shorter than the others, less than 3000, in fact only 2910 But it'll have to do, for now. I could get this chapter any longer because it would take the beginning of the next chapt. Well, you understand me.  
  
I hope you enjoyed Xmas or version of Xmas, and I hope the year 2003 will be better than this year. I don't want to be critic or anything, but I find it ironical because USA gives, like of the fluffy films that all goes well, family rejoined and all the bla bla. And they will separating families in Iraq with bombs. Well, I'm happy that our stupid french president (his nickname is Super Liar, Super Menteur in french) at least did one thing right!!!  
  
Well I'll leave you here hoping that you'll REVIEW, even if it had nothing to do with the story (like views on this world?) Happy New Year!!!!  
  
Human Nature. 


	4. check it out!

If dome of you have been wondering where the hell I was, well, I've been recuperating (sort of). But don't worry, the story is on it's way....... With the apparition of a Cajun charmer. Yes, the story was never meant to be a Wolverine/Rogue romance, they have more the father daughter relationship. And if you want to know about Gambit, well it won't be get him and Rogue together. (duh, inspiration, sarcastic) Yes, I've seen X-men 2. And well, it was great! Nightcrawler was wonderful (don't worry in this dumb story, he WILL get an important part! I like him too much... *Sighs.* But, Rogue? What happened to her? I've nearly got the impression she's replaced Kitty's role. She's flimsy and really: Where's the lovely sarcastic southern belle (of course I got to see it in french....) God and how I jumped at the name Remy LeBeau the computer when Mystique was searching the office. And McCoy on TV!!! And all the rest... Well, I suppose I should be writing the rest instead of babbling........... God! and the first scene!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wouam!!!!!!! In the guts and pamb!!! And..... Ok, I must calm down. Oh and poor Mystique with Logan! And.... Ok, I'm leaving..... Wasn't Pyro blond in the first film???? And  
  
Hum.nat * Ps: did the film give St John his Australian accent? Tell me! 


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